Thursday, March 29, 2012

Inspired by my lovely bestie (who now has a blog.. over here..), I
decided to have a go at the 'Photo an hour' meme yesterday. It was
really interesting to see how much (or in yesterdays case, how little!) I
got done in a day, and also to realise how quickly time passes. There
were a few photos I nearly completely forgot to take!

7am: Out of bed, making lunches and breakfasts.

8am: Rushing out the door to drop Aesop at school and Otto at homecare.

9am: Taking my Wardrobe Wednesday shots for the day.

10am: Catching up on some 'very important' T.V - Go Girls. (Actually I'm very disappointed with this season.. but that's a story for another day.)

11am: Out to 'The Hub' to pick up a few things we needed. Printer ink, school shorts, a night bra and a baby singlet.

12noon: Printing drafts of Abraham's birthday party invite. Trying hard to line up the picture and the text, failing.

1pm: A late lunch of sushi with a friend. DELISH. We also walked around the shops and made fun of current fashion- always a favourite activity for me.

2pm: On my way to pick the boys up.

3pm: Aesop does his homework and practises his recorder.

4pm: I get dinner on. Chicken curry.

5pm: a very tired and grumpy Otto falls asleep on the floor in the hallway. In hindsight, I should have woken him... but he was too cute.

6pm: We sit outside, making the most of the light dinner time hours still, and eat our curry. It tastes very good.

7pm: We go for a stroll around the neighbourhood, to get rid of the last of our energy before bed. It's beautiful, as always.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I found a dress at the Sallies yesterday - one that actually fits the bump! Yessss!

I may or may not have accidentally hemmed it far too short this morning,
in a rush to get out of the house, but I figure it will save me a job
re-hemming it once my waist line begins to return to normal, right?

I have teamed it with the good ole faithful black Glassons cardi, a necklace I picked up at a local crafty shop, and some plain black flats (which seem awfully far away.. I have to poke my bottom right out to even be able to see them!) Nothing too fancy, but really, in my state it's all about comfort (and resisting the urge to wear the trackpants out of the house..)

I have a busy day of watching T.V 'On Demand', printing birthday invites, and eating sushi with a friend planned. Ahhhh bliss. Hope you all have a fabulous Wardrobe Wednesday too.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Our collection of woollen singlets were looking a little worse for wear (two boys, and a washing machine that is less than gentle, will do that!) so I had a go at dyeing them over the weekend. I remember now why it is that I don't dye things very often - you never can really predict what colour things will end up! The green is greener than it looks in these photos, but is still far more 'khaki' than 'parakeet' and the blue has a definite hint of purple.. I'm not complaining though. Not at all. They look a lot better than the well-used cream colour that they were, and soon they will be layered on delicious newborn skin where nothing can look bad!

Do you dye things often? Is there a trick I don't know about, to getting the colour even and more predictable? Or is that all part of the beauty of it?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

As part of our mad 'get ready for baby' dash, we recently cleared out our garage.It was so nice to be ruthless and get rid of things we've been holding onto 'just in case' and to sell a few bits of furniture etc, that really we will never use again. I looked through some boxes that have been hiding down there since we moved into this house, over three years ago now, and in one of them I found a wee collection of vintage dresses.These are dresses that were gifted to me some time ago, by a friend who was moving out of town and downsizing. They were her 'op shop pile', if you will. (Can you imagine what her keeping pile looked like?!) I inherited a bunch of other clothing too, but these were the pieces I knew I had to keep. I will never (ever) fit them (most of them are between a 22 and 24" waist..) but I just like to stroke them now and then. That sounds a touch creepy, but somehow I know you will understand.

They look so pretty all freshly washed and blowing in the breeze.

I'd like to say they were the only teensy-tiny-only-for-looking-at vintage dresses I hang onto, but I also have these ones hanging up in our bedroom.. and let's not get me started on my actual wardrobe.. NONE of which seem to fit right now...

I'm so lucky I have such a patient and understanding husband! And, perhaps, even luckily that he has 2000+ records filling up the hallway...

Friday, March 23, 2012

Today is the first day of true sunshine, after what has felt like a lifetime of wet and muggy days. I thought I might celebrate the light by taking a few belated Wardrobe Wednesday photos. On second thought I realised that, actually, maybe it wasn't the best idea - I'm having a home day (with a very cough-y and tired Aesop) with no need to dress up and, frankly, I'm sort of running out of clothes that fit! It's quite a strange feeling when you get down to your last half a dozen items of clothing that you can manage to stretch over your belly.. and even harder when half of those are in the wash due to all the rain!

But, because I'm feeling the urge to document these last few weeks of pregnancy, did anyway. It is my last one, afterall! And, despite the aches and pains, there are definitely going to be days that I miss having a big ole wriggly bump. There's something ever-so-magical about growing a life inside you. Something completely incomparable to any other experience in life. And something so strange in knowing that it will be the very last time, too. I'm trying very hard to hold back on any complaining, and just treasure this last little stretch for all it is worth.

Brown wool blend skirt- thrifted many moons ago, before having Aesop.Grey singlet and striped tee - Glassons $10 and $15Necklace - made by me from old beads and homemade wool pompoms.Baby bump - just over 37 weeks!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

To tell the truth, it's not really because I've not been sewing - just that the making has slowed a LOT since I got out the bags of clothes and things and realised that this babe is going to be need to be changed four times a day to even get through the things in the drawers! Who knew one family could have so many teensy outfits?

I have focused my crafting on a few slightly 'girlier' items, because
those are the things we are lacking in after having two boys. I'm still
fairly convinced that this wee bundle will be of the male variety too,
but I want to have a few 'pretty' things just in case.

I made two more of the little peasant style dresses - this time in
lovely quilting fabrics from Spotlight. Last time we were there the
floral caught my eye, and I couldn't leave it behind, despite the $18/m
price tag! Luckily this project takes less than 1/2 a metre, because
that is all I could justify buying!

The wee cloths and hooded receiving towels (backed in the matching
cottons) are inspired by the lovely Dee and her Birthnotes series (Go!
Read it all! That woman is amazing!).

(I've been sewing other things too - but that will have to wait a wee while to be revealed. )

(Dress by the amazing Hikkepik on Felt. Abraham got it for my for Xmas - juuuust in case!)

With only about 3 weeks of pregnancy left, my energy levels are starting to wane. We've had a very, very busy month and I'm ready now to just relax and wait for the next chapter to begin (one more thing on this weekend, then *breath out* relax!). It is amazing how time can seem to both fly and drag both at once. I feel like I still have a big list of things to get done in the next 21 days, but also that I simply cannot wait to wrap my arms around the new one, and breathe in a great big sniff of that amazing newborn smell.

In the mean time, I just sneak into the nursery every day and sit in the nursing chair, and imagine.

Monday, March 19, 2012

We were lucky enough to spend this past weekend surrounded by love, family and... farmland.
We spent two nights at the Waitawheta camp, which is just out of Waihi but feels like the middle of nowhere, to celebrate the wedding of my Father-in-law, Steve, and his lovely partner Maxine.The camp is a really neat place, a good old fashioned school camp - dorms with huge long rows of bunks, walls with things like 'G-dawg waz hea 2002' written on them, and blocks of communal showers. But, along with these things (which I'm not really complaining about, I think they have a certain charm to them!) came incredible old fashioned wallpaper, rows of Readers digest books, a very cool war memorial hall, an obstacle course and all-round great place for a huge family and friends to hang out. The wedding itself was held at the Waihi Waterlily gardens, which were nearly as stunning as the bridal party. The nuptials took place on a lovely wee boardwalk, over a pond of waterlillies and were really lovely. Aesop did a smashing job as the ring bearer (despite being verrry nervous about falling in the water, or dropping the ring!) and was proud as punch to don the matching gold tie. Abraham emceed the wedding and reception, and he did wonderfully as well (hooooo-boy he looked good in his bow-tie, too). I was/am one proud lady.

All-in-all it was so delightful to spend time with family from near and far (amazing to see the boys with their cousins, always makes me feel warm and fuzzy!) and such a privilege to be witness to the joining of two such amazing people. Weddings really are such a wonderful part of life.